System for serving advertisements based on offline advertising campaigns

ABSTRACT

A system is described for serving an online advertisement based on an offline advertising campaign. The system may include a memory, an interface and a processor. The memory may be operatively connected to the interface and the processor and may store an offline advertising campaign of an advertiser, an advertising effect period, a set of users, and an online advertisement. The interface may be operatively connected to the memory and may be used to serve the online advertisement to the users in the set of users. The processor may be operatively connected to the memory and the interface. The processor may identify the offline advertising campaign and the advertising effect period, the period when the offline advertising campaign is capable of effecting the online behavior of the set of users. The processor may identify an online advertisement relating to the offline advertising campaign. The processor may serve the online advertisement, to the users in the set of users, via the interface, during the advertising effect period.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/726,005, filed Mar. 20, 2007 (pending), which isincorporated by reference herein.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present description relates generally to a system and method,generally referred to as a system, for serving advertisements based onoffline advertising campaigns, and more particularly, but notexclusively, to serving online advertisements based on a televisionadvertising campaign to users capable of being exposed to the televisionadvertising campaign.

BACKGROUND

Online advertising may be an effective method for advertisers to reachconsumers. Online advertising may give advertisers the ability todirectly measure the effectiveness of their advertisements, by measuringthe web traffic generated by the advertisements and/or by measuringecommerce transactions generated by the advertisements. While onlineadvertising campaigns may continue to grow in popularity, offlineadvertising campaigns, such as print advertisements, radioadvertisements, and television advertisements may still be the preferredform of advertising for some advertisers. Unlike an online advertisingcampaign, offline advertising campaigns may suffer from an inability todirectly measure the effectiveness of the campaign, particularly theeffectiveness of the campaign on ecommerce. Furthermore, onlineadvertising campaigns may run independent of offline advertisingcampaigns and vice-versa.

SUMMARY

A system is disclosed for serving an online advertisement based on anoffline advertising campaign. The system may include a processor, amemory, and an interface. The memory may be operatively connected to theinterface and the processor and may store an offline advertisingcampaign of an advertiser, an advertising effect period, a set of users,and an online advertisement. The interface may be operatively connectedto the memory and may be used to serve the online advertisement to theusers in the set of users. The processor may be operatively connected tothe memory and the interface. The processor may identify the offlineadvertising campaign and the advertising effect period, the period whenthe offline advertising campaign is capable of effecting the onlinebehavior of the set of users. The processor may identify an onlineadvertisement relating to the offline advertising campaign. Theprocessor may serve the online advertisement, to the users in the set ofusers, via the interface, during the advertising effect period.

Other systems, methods, features and advantages will be, or will become,apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the followingfigures and detailed description. It is intended that all suchadditional systems, methods, features and advantages be included withinthis description, be within the scope of the embodiments, and beprotected by the following claims and be defined by the followingclaims. Further aspects and advantages are discussed below inconjunction with the description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The system and/or method may be better understood with reference to thefollowing drawings and description. Non-limiting and non-exhaustivedescriptions are described with reference to the following drawings. Thecomponents in the figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis insteadbeing placed upon illustrating principles. In the figures, likereferenced numerals may refer to like parts throughout the differentfigures unless otherwise specified.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a general overview of a system for servingadvertisements based on offline advertising campaigns.

FIG. 2 is block diagram of a simplified view of a network environmentimplementing a system for serving advertisements based on offlineadvertising campaigns.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the operations of the system of FIG.1, or other systems for serving advertisements based on offlineadvertising campaigns.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating steps that may be taken by a user inthe system of FIG. 1, or other systems for serving advertisements basedon offline advertising campaigns.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating steps that may be taken by a revenuegenerator in the system of FIG. 1, or other systems for servingadvertisements based on offline advertising campaigns.

FIG. 6 is a screenshot of a web traffic graph containing datarepresenting the web traffic related to an offline advertising campaigngenerated within the advertising region over both the control period andthe advertising effect period that may be displayed to a revenuegenerator in the system of FIG. 1, or other systems for servingadvertisements based on offline advertising campaigns.

FIG. 7 is an illustration a general computer system that may be used inthe system of FIG. 1, or other systems for serving advertisements basedon offline advertising campaigns.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A system and method, generally referred to as a system, relate toserving advertisements based on offline advertising campaigns, and moreparticularly, but not exclusively, to serving online advertisementsbased on a television advertising campaign to users capable of beingexposed to the television advertising campaign. The principles describedherein may be embodied in many different forms.

An advertiser's online advertisements may be more efficient when theyare coordinated with offline advertising campaigns. The system may allowa revenue generator to measure the effect of an offline advertisingcampaign on online advertising. The system may allow a revenue generatorto determine what timeframe offline advertising campaigns have thegreatest effect on online advertisements. The system may allow a revenuegenerator to determine the effect of offline advertising on keywordsearches. The system may allow a revenue generator to measure consumerinterest in a brand, a set of products, or the revenue generatorthemselves through searches, user interaction with content, userinteraction with advertisements, or generally any online user behaviorthat may be indicative of consumer interest.

A service provider may generate more revenue from advertisements if theadvertisements are displayed to users during periods of time when usersare more likely to click on the advertisement. The advertisements mayalso be displayed to users within a geographic region who are morelikely to click on the advertisement. The system may allow a serviceprovider to utilize offline advertising information to determine when arevenue generator's advertisement may be most likely to be clicked on.The system may also allow a service provider to determine a set of usersmost likely to click on the advertisement. The determinations may bemade by determining the geographic region of users capable of beingexposed to the offline advertising campaign and the date/time that theoffline advertising campaign may have been available to the users. Theservice provider may use data pertaining to an offline advertisingcampaign in determining the relevancy of an advertisement to a keywordsearched for.

FIG. 1 provides a general overview of a system 100 for servingadvertisements based on offline advertising campaigns. Not all of thedepicted components may be required, however, and some implementationsmay include additional components. Variations in the arrangement andtype of the components may be made without departing from the spirit orscope of the claims as set forth herein. Additional, different or fewercomponents may be provided.

The system 100 may include one or more revenue generators 110A-N, suchas advertisers, a service provider 130, such as a portal, one or moreusers 120A-N, such as web surfers or consumers, and an offlineadvertising campaign 125, such one or more television commercials, radiocommercials or print advertisements. The revenue generators 110A-N maypay the service provider 130 to display advertisements, such as on-lineadvertisements on a network such as the Internet. The payments may bebased on various factors, such as the number of times an advertisementmay be displayed to the users 120A-N and/or the number of times one ofthe users 120A-N clicks through the advertisement to the revenuegenerator's web site. The revenue generators 110A-N may also pay theservice provider 130 or other entities for displaying offlineadvertising campaigns, such as the offline advertising campaign 125. Theusers 120A-N may be consumers of goods or services who may be searchingfor a business such as the business of one of the revenue generators110A-N. The users 120A-N may supply information describing themselves tothe service provider 130, such as the location, gender, or age of theusers 120A-N, or generally any information that may be required for theusers 120A-N to utilize the services provided by the service provider130.

In the system 100, the revenue generators 110A-N may interact with theservice provider 130, such as via a web application. The revenuegenerators 110A-N may send information, such as billing, website andadvertisement information, to the service provider 130 via the webapplication. The web application may include a web browser or otherapplication such as any application capable of displaying web content.The application may be implemented with a processor such as a personalcomputer, personal digital assistant, mobile phone, or any other machinecapable of implementing a web application. The users 120A-N may alsointeract individually with the service provider 130, such as via a webapplication. The users 120A-N may interact with the service provider 130via a web based application or a standalone application. The serviceprovider 130 may communicate data to the revenue generators 110A-N andthe users 120A-N over a network. The following examples may refer to arevenue generator A 110A as an online advertiser; however the system 100may apply to any revenue generators 110A-N who may desire to measure theeffect of their offline advertising.

In operation, one of the revenue generators 110A-N, such as revenuegenerator A 110A, may provide information to the service provider 130.This information may relate to the transaction taking place between therevenue generator A 110A and the service provider 130, or may relate toan account the revenue A 110A generator maintains with the serviceprovider 130. In the case of a revenue generator A 110A who is an onlineadvertiser, the revenue generator A 110A may provide initial informationnecessary to open an account with the service provider 130.

A revenue generator A 110A who is an online advertiser may maintainseveral accounts with the service provider 130. For each account therevenue generator A 110A may maintain several listings. A listing mayinclude a product name, a description, one or more search keywords, anadvertisement, a URL, and a bid amount. A listing may represent anassociation between the one or more search keywords identified by therevenue generator A 110A, and an advertisement of the revenue generatorA 110A.

The product name may be the name of the product being advertised, suchas “JEEP WRANGLER.” The description may describe the product beingadvertised. For example, if GENERAL MOTORS wished to advertise a GENERALMOTORS JEEP WRANGLER, the listing may have a description of “GENERALMOTORS JEEP WRANGLER,” “JEEP WRANGLER,” or “5 PASSENGER JEEP WRANGLER.”

The keywords may represent one or more search terms that the revenuegenerator A 110A wishes to associate their advertisement with. When auser A 120A searches for one of the listing's keywords, theadvertisement of the revenue generator A 110A may be displayed on thesearch results page. For example, a revenue generator A 110A, such asGENERAL MOTORS, may desire to target an online advertisement for aGENERAL MOTORS JEEP WRANGLER to users 120A-N searching for the keywords“JEEP”, “WRANGLER”, or “JEEP WRANGLER”. GENERAL MOTORS may place a bidwith the service provider 130 for the search keywords “JEEP”,“WRANGLER”, and “JEEP WRANGLER” and may associate the onlineadvertisement for a GENERAL MOTORS JEEP WRANGLER with the keywords. Theadvertisement of the revenue generator A 110A may be displayed when oneof the users 120A-N searches for the keywords “JEEP”, “WRANGLER”, or“JEEP WRANGLER”.

The advertisement may represent the data the revenue generator A 110Awishes to be displayed to a user A 120A when the users A 120A searchesfor one of the listing's keywords. The URL may represent the link therevenue generator A 110A wishes a user A 120A to be directed to uponclicking on the advertisement of the revenue generator A 110A, such asthe home page of the revenue generator A 110A. The bid amount mayrepresent a maximum amount the revenue generator A 110A may be willingto pay each time a user A 120A may click on the advertisement of therevenue generator A 110A or each time the advertisement of the revenuegenerator A 110A may be shown to a user A 120A.

There may be some instances where multiple revenue generators 110A-N mayhave bid on the same search keyword. The service provider 130 may serveto the users 120A-N the online advertisements that the users 120A-N maybe most likely to click on. For example, the service provider 130 mayinclude a relevancy assessment to determine the relevancy of themultiple online advertisements to the search keyword. The more relevantan advertisement may be to the keyword the more likely it may be thatthe user A 120A may click on the advertisement. Exemplary ways todetermine relevance are described in more detail below.

When one of the users 120A-N, such as the user A 120A, interacts withthe service provider 130, such as by searching for a keyword, theservice provider 130 may retain data describing the interaction with theuser A 120A. The saved data may include the keyword searched for, thegeographic location of the user A 120A, and the date/time the user A120A interacted with the service provider 130. The data may alsogenerally include any data available to the service provider 130 thatmay assist in describing the interaction with the user A 120A, ordescribing the user A 120A. The service provider 130 may also store datathat indicates whether an advertisement of one of the revenue generators110A-N, such as the revenue generator A 110A was displayed to the user A120A, and whether the user A 120A clicked on the advertisement.

The service provider 130 may already have information relating to thegeographic location of the user A 120A and other information describingthe user A 120A, such as gender, age, etc. This information may havebeen previously supplied to the service provider 130 by the user A 120A.Alternatively or in addition the service provider 130 may obtain thelocation of the user A 120A based on the IP address of the user A 120A.The service provider 130 may use a current date/time stamp to store thedate/time when the user A 120A interacted with the service provider 130.

The service provider 130 may generate reports based on the datacollected from the user interactions and communicate the reports to therevenue generators 110A-N to assist the revenue generators 110A-N inmeasuring the effectiveness of their online advertising. The reports mayindicate the number of times the users 120A-N searched for the keywordsbid on by the revenue generators 110A-N, the number of times anadvertisement of the revenue generators 110A-N was displayed to theusers 120A-N, the number of times the users 120A-N clicked through onthe advertisements of the revenue generators 110A-N. The reports mayalso generally indicate any data that may assist the revenue generators110A-N in measuring the effectiveness of their online advertising.

The reports may further include sub-reports that segment the data intomore specific categories, including the time intervals when theinteractions occurred, such as weeknights primetime, weekends, etc., thedemographics of the users 120A-N, such as men ages 18-34, the locationof the users 120A-N. The reports may also generally include any otherdata categorization that may assist the revenue generators 110A-N indetermining the effectiveness of their online advertising.

The revenue generators 110A-N may also make an offline advertisingcampaign 125 available to the users 120A-N. The offline advertisingcampaign 125 may include one or more of a print advertisement, a radioadvertisement, a television advertisement, or generally any otheroffline advertisement. The offline advertising campaign 125 may includeoffline advertisements relating to a product, a brand, a set ofproducts, the revenue generator A 110A, or generally any other groupingof offline advertisements that may be beneficial for the revenuegenerators 110A-N. The nature of the offline advertising campaign 125may result in the offline advertising campaign 125 only being availableto, or targeted to, a subset of the users 120A-N, such as the users120A-N located within a specified geographic region, the advertisingregion. For example, GENERAL MOTORS may only display a televisionadvertisement for a GENERAL MOTORS JEEP WRANGLER to a regional marketduring a given period of time, such as the Chicago market during atelevision show on Wednesday nights from 7-8 PM CST. In this instance,the offline advertising campaign 125 may only be available to the users120A-N located within the Chicago area. The advertising region in thiscase may be the Chicago area. The Chicago area may be defined by thecity boundaries, or may be defined by a distance range extending outsideof the city boundaries.

A revenue generator A 110A with an offline advertising campaign 125, maycommunicate to the service provider 130 information describing theoffline advertising campaign 125. The information may include the one ormore products being advertised and the advertising period representingthe date/time the offline advertising campaign 125 may have beenavailable to the users 120A-N. Other types of information may includethe advertising region representing the geographic location of the users120A-N capable of being exposed to the offline advertising campaign 125,the type of offline advertisements, such as print advertisements, radioadvertisements or television advertisements, and any online listingsthat may relate to the offline advertising campaign 125. Otherinformation may also be included such as information regarding any otherdata capable of describing the offline advertising campaign 125. Theadvertising period may include the date/time the offline advertisingcampaign 125 may have been first made available to the users 120A-Nand/or the date/time period the offline advertising campaign 125 mayhave been available to the users 120A-N. The revenue generator A 110Amay also communicate to the service provider 130 an advertising effectperiod, the period of time the revenue generator A 110A believes theonline behavior of the users 120A-N may have been affected by theoffline advertising campaign 125.

Alternatively or in addition, the service provider 130 may be able toobtain the information describing the offline advertising campaign 125from a third party. The third party may be unrelated to the revenuegenerator A 110A. In this case, the service provider 130 mayautomatically retrieve the data from the third party without anyinitiative on the part of the revenue generators 110A-N. The revenuegenerators 110A-N may be able to supplement, correct or otherwise modifythe data supplied by the third party.

The service provider 130 may use the data supplied by the revenuegenerator A 110A, and/or the third party, to search the historical userinteraction data to generate additional reports communicated to therevenue generator A 110A. The additional reports may demonstrate theeffect of the offline advertising campaign 125 of the revenue generatorA 110A on the online behavior of the users 120A-N. To generate thereports, the service provider 130 may first need to identify therelevant search keywords, the advertising effect period, and theadvertising region of the offline advertising campaign 125.

To determine the search keywords that may relate to the offlineadvertising campaign 125, the service provider 130 may refer to thekeywords bid on by the revenue generator A 110A for an onlineadvertisement relating to the one or more products advertised in theoffline advertising campaign 125. Alternatively or in addition, theservice provider 130 may determine the relevant keywords by matching thedescriptions of the online listings to the description of the offlineadvertising campaign 125, matching the product names of the onlinelistings to the one or more product names of the offline advertisingcampaign 125, content matching the online advertisements with theoffline advertising campaign 125. The service provider 130 may alsogenerally determine relevant keywords by matching any common databetween the online listing and the offline advertising campaign 125.Alternatively or in addition the revenue generator A 110A may specifyonline listings of the revenue generator A 110A that may relate to theoffline advertising campaign 125. For example, in the case of GENERALMOTORS, the offline advertising campaign 125 for the GENERAL MOTORS JEEPWRANGLER may be linked to the online listings containing search keywordsbid on by GENERAL MOTORS for a GENERAL MOTORS JEEP WRANGLER onlineadvertisement, such as “JEEP”, “WRANGLER”, and “JEEP WRANGLER.”

Alternatively or in addition the revenue generator A 110A may specifythe relevant search keywords, and/or the service provider 130 may supplyset relevant search keywords for a given category of an offlineadvertising campaign, such as search keywords relating to caradvertisements. The service provider 130 may use one or more of the nameof the one or more products being advertised, the name of the revenuegenerator A 110A and/or any other information available to the serviceprovider 130, through a third party or the revenue generator A 110A,which may be capable of describing the one or more products beingadvertised. For example, if a revenue generator A 110A, such as GENERALMOTORS, has not bid on any keywords relating to an offline advertisingcampaign 125 for the JEEP WRANGLER product, and GENERAL MOTORS submitsinformation relating to the offline advertising campaign 125 for a JEEPWRANGLER, the service provider 130 may use one or more combinations of“GENERAL MOTORS” and “JEEP WRANGLER” as the relevant search keywords.

After identifying the relevant search keywords, the service provider 130may determine the advertising effect period, representing the period oftime that the offline advertising campaign 125 may have affected theonline behavior of the users 120A-N. The revenue generator A 110A maysupply the service provider 130 with the period of time the revenuegenerator A 110A believes to be the advertising effect period, or theservice provider 130 may determine an advertising effect period based onthe starting date/time or the date/time period of the offlineadvertising campaign 125, and the types of offline advertisements. Forexample, if the offline advertising campaign 125 was a televisionadvertisement available to users between 7-8 PM on Jan. 24, 2007, theadvertising effect period may be 7-9 PM on Jan. 24, 2007.

The advertising effect period may be longer than the advertising periodas the online behavior of the users 120A-N may be affected for a periodof time beyond when the offline advertising campaign 125 may have beenavailable to the users 120A-N. For example, if the offline advertisingcampaign 125 was a print advertisement in a newspaper on Jan. 24, 2007,the period of time may be the entire day on Jan. 24, 2007. Alternativelyor in addition if the offline advertising campaign 125 may have been anadvertisement run over several periods of time, the advertising effectperiod may be the collection of all the individual advertising effectperiods. For example, if the advertisement was run from 7-8 PM oncertain weekdays, the advertising effect period may be the collectivetime periods of 7-9 PM on those weekdays. Alternatively or in addition,if the offline advertising campaign 125 may have been available, orintermittently available to the users 120A-N over an extended period oftime, the advertising effect period may be the entire duration of theoffline advertising campaign 125, plus any additional time the onlinebehavior of the users 120A-N may have been affected by the offlineadvertising campaign 125.

After identifying the relevant search keywords and the advertisingeffect period, the service provider 130 may determine the advertisingregion, representing the geographic region where users 120A-N may becapable of being exposed to the offline advertising campaign 125. Thisinformation may be supplied to the service provider 130 by the revenuegenerator A 110A, or by third parties. For example, if the offlineadvertising campaign 125 was available to the users 120A-N located inthe Chicago metropolitan area, the advertising region may be the Chicagometropolitan area. The Chicago metropolitan area may be defined by theboundaries of the city of Chicago and/or a distance range extending aset distance beyond the city's boundaries.

The service provider 130 may use the relevant search keywords, theadvertising effect period, and the advertising region to extract the webtraffic related to the search keywords generated during the advertisingeffect period by users 120A-N located within the advertising region,such as the web traffic generated when the users 120A-N searched for therelevant search keywords. The total number of results returned mayrepresent the number of times users 120A-N located within theadvertising region searched for the keywords related to the offlineadvertising campaign 125 during the advertising effect period. Theservice provider 130 may use the extracted web traffic data to generatea report, such as a graph, and communicate the report to the revenuegenerator A 110A. The report may provide the revenue generators 110A-Nwith information regarding the effect of an offline advertising campaign125 on the online behavior of the users 120A-N.

Alternatively or in addition the service provider 130 may extract otherweb traffic data relevant to the offline advertising campaign 125, suchas data relating to the users 120A-N interaction with content, datarelating to the users 120A-N interaction with advertisements, orgenerally any data relating to the online behavior of the users 120A-Npertaining to the offline advertising campaign 125. For example, if therevenue generator A 110A has an online advertisement relating to theoffline advertising campaign 125, the service provider 130 may extractdata indicating the number of times the online advertisement may havebeen viewed or clicked on by the users 120A-N located within theadvertising region during the advertising effect period. This data maybe used to generate a report, such as a graph, which may be communicatedto the revenue generator A 110A.

The service provider 130 may also extract data relating to otherservices provided by the service provider 130 relevant to the offlineadvertising campaign 125. For example, if the service provider 130offers an automobile sales portal, and GENERAL MOTORS runs an offlineadvertising campaign 125 for a GENERAL MOTORS JEEP WRANGLER, the serviceprovider 130 may extract data from the automobile sales portal relevantto the offline advertising campaign 125, such as the number of timesinformation related to the GENERAL MOTORS JEEP WRANGLER may have beenviewed by the users 120A-N, whether any GENERAL MOTORS JEEP WRANGLERsmay have been sold to any of the users 120A-N, whether any offers forsale may have been made by any of the users 120A-N for GENERAL MOTORSJEEP WRANGLERs, or generally any other data that may relate to theoffline advertising campaign 125. In another example, if the revenuegenerator A 110A ran an offline advertising campaign 125 for a travelad, and the service provider 130 offered a travel portal, the revenuegenerator A 110A may extract data from the travel portal relevant to theoffline advertising campaign 125.

The service provider 130 may also extract control data relating to othertime periods when the offline advertising campaign 125 may not have beenavailable to the users 120A-N and/or other geographic regions where theoffline advertising campaign 125 may not have been available to theusers 120A-N. The control data may provide context to the advertisingeffect data. For example, the service provider 130 may extract controldata relating to the web traffic associated with the relevant searchkeywords, generated within the advertising region, during a controlperiod, a period comparative to the advertising effect period, but aperiod when the offline advertising campaign 125 may not have beenavailable to the users 120A-N.

Alternatively or in addition, the service provider 130 may extractcontrol data relating to the web traffic associated with the searchkeywords generated by users 120A-N located within a control region. Thecontrol region may include a region comparative to the advertisingregion, but a region where the offline advertising campaign 125 may nothave been available during the advertising effect period. The controlregion may be combined with the control period to extract control datarelating to the offline advertising campaign 125. Generally, the serviceprovider 130 may extract control data in any way that may providecontext to the advertising effect data.

The control period and/or control region may be supplied to the serviceprovider by the revenue generator A 110A, or the service provider 130may determine a control period and/or a control region throughinformation provided by one or more third parties. The control periodmay be the same period of time as the advertising effect period, on acomparative day, when the offline advertising campaign 125 may not havebeen available to the users 120A-N within the advertising region. Forexample, if the advertising effect period was 7-9 PM on a Wednesday, acomparative time period may be 7-9 PM on the following day, Thursday, ifthe offline advertising campaign 125 was not available to the users120A-N at that time. The control region may be a region comparative tothe advertising region where the offline advertising campaign 125 maynot have been available to the users 120A-N during the advertisingeffect period. Factors that may be considered in determining a controlregion for a given advertising region may be the demographic make up ofthe regions, the population densities of the regions or merely thepopulation of the regions. For example, if the advertising region wasNew York, then, based on population, a comparative geographic region maybe Chicago or Los Angeles, if the offline advertising campaign 125 wasnot available to the users 120A-N located within those regions.

The extracted control data may include the total number of times theusers 120A-N searched for the relevant keywords during the controlperiod and/or within the control region. The control data may be used togenerate a second report, or may be used in conjunction with theadvertising effect data to generate a report comparing both sets ofdata. The difference between the sets of data may indicate the effect ofthe offline advertising campaign 125 on the online behavior of the users120A-N.

Furthermore, the service provider 130 may generate an effectivenessscore indicating the effect of the offline advertising campaign 125 onthe online behavior of the users 120A-N. The effectiveness score may bebased an advertising effect score, the total number of times the users120A-N located within the advertising region searched for the keywordsduring the advertising period, and a control score, the total number oftimes the users 120A-N located within the control region searched forthe keywords during the control period. Alternatively or in addition thecontrol score may be calculated based on the other aforementionedcontrol scenarios. The effectiveness score may be calculated bysubtracting the control score from the advertising effect score. Theservice provider 130 may also calculate an effectiveness percent,representing the percent increase or decrease of web traffic during theadvertising effect period. The effectiveness percent may be calculatedby dividing the advertising effect score by the control score andmultiplying the result by 100.

Alternatively or in addition the service provider 130 may use theeffectiveness scores and/or data relating to an offline advertisingcampaign 125 to assist with serving online advertisements to the users120A-N. For example, the users 120A-N may be more likely to click on anadvertisement of a revenue generator A 110A if they may have beenrecently exposed to an offline advertising campaign 125 relating to theonline advertisement. Thus the aforementioned relevancy assessment ofthe service provider 130 may further include the use of effectivenessscores and/or data relating to the time and location of an offlineadvertising campaign 125.

For example, if a user A 120A searches, within the advertising effectperiod and advertising region of an offline advertising campaign 125,for a search keyword that may relate to the offline advertising campaign125, the service provider 130 may determine that an online advertisementrelating to the offline advertising campaign 125 may be more relevantthan online advertisements without accompanying offline advertisingcampaigns. Thus, the service provider 130 may display the onlineadvertisement relating to the offline advertising campaign 125 moreprominently than the other advertisements. This may benefit both theservice provider 130 and the revenue generators 110A-N by increasing theclick throughs on the advertisements of the revenue generators 110A-N bythe users 120A-N.

Alternatively or in addition the service provider 130 may compare thehistorical effectiveness scores across the advertising effect period. Bycomparing the historical effectiveness scores across the advertisingeffect period the service provider 130 may be able to determine at whatpoint in time in the advertising effect period the offline advertisingcampaign 125 may have been more or less effective. The service provider130 may use this information to determine how effective an onlineadvertisement relating to the offline advertising campaign 125 may bedepending on when the user A 120 A may have been exposed to the offlineadvertising campaign 125. The online advertisement may be displayed moreor less prominently depending on the historical effectiveness at thepoint in time of the advertising effect period that the user A 120A mayhave been exposed to the offline advertising campaign 125.

The service provider 130 may use the historical effectiveness scores tofurther distinguish amongst several simultaneous offline advertisingcampaigns relating to the search keyword of the user A 120A. Thesimultaneous offline advertising campaigns may be ranked according totheir historical effectiveness scores. These scores may be available ormay need to be presently calculated by the service provider 130 based onhistorical user interaction data. Offline advertising campaigns whichmay have been more effective in the past may be more likely to beclicked on than those with lower effectiveness scores.

Alternatively or in addition the service provider 130 may calculate morespecific historical effectiveness scores based on the demographicinformation of the user A 120A available to the service provider 130.For example, if the service provider 130 has information relating to theage of the user A 120A, the effectiveness score may be calculated basedon a demographic age range the user A 120A falls into, such as 18-34.This may enable the service provider 130 to specifically target the user120A-N with the online advertisement correlating to the offlineadvertising campaign the user A 120A may be most likely to be effectedby. The service provider 130 may use any other demographic informationavailable, such as gender, marital status, or economic background incalculating a specific historical effectiveness score.

FIG. 2 provides a simplified view of a network environment implementinga system 200 for serving advertisements based on offline advertisingcampaigns. Not all of the depicted components may be required, however,and some implementations may include additional components not shown inthe figure. Variations in the arrangement and type of the components maybe made without departing from the spirit or scope of the claims as setforth herein. Additional, different or fewer components may be provided.

The system 200 may include one or more web applications, standaloneapplications and mobile applications 210A-N, which may be collectivelyor individually referred to as client applications for the revenuegenerators 110A-N. The system 200 may also include one or more webapplications, standalone applications, mobile applications 220A-N, whichmay collectively be referred to as client applications for the users120A-N, or individually as a user client application. The system 200 mayalso include a network 230, a network 235, the service provider server240, a third party server 250, and an advertising services server 260.External to the system 200 may be the offline advertising campaign 125,which may be available to the users 120A-N.

Some or all of the advertisement services server 260, service providerserver 240, and third-party server 250 may be in communication with eachother by way of network 235 and may be the system or componentsdescribed below in FIG. 7. The advertisement services server 260,third-party server 250 and service provider server 240 may eachrepresent multiple linked computing devices. Multiple distinct thirdparty servers, such as the third-party server 250, may be included inthe system 200. The third-party server 250 may supply data indicatingwhen offline advertising campaigns of revenue generators 110A-N may havebeen available to the users 120A-N of a particular region.

The networks 230, 235 may include wide area networks (WAN), such as theinternet, local area networks (LAN), campus area networks, metropolitanarea networks, or any other networks that may allow for datacommunication. The network 230 may include the Internet and may includeall or part of network 235; network 235 may include all or part ofnetwork 230. The networks 230, 235 may be divided into sub-networks. Thesub-networks may allow access to all of the other components connectedto the networks 230, 235 in the system 200, or the sub-networks mayrestrict access between the components connected to the networks 230,235. The network 235 may be regarded as a public or private networkconnection and may include, for example, a virtual private network or anencryption or other security mechanism employed over the publicInternet, or the like.

The revenue generators 110A-N may use a web application 210A, standaloneapplication 210B, or a mobile application 210N, or any combinationthereof, to communicate to the service provider server 240, such as viathe networks 230, 235. Similarly, the users 120A-N may use a webapplication 220A, a standalone application 220B, or a mobile application220N to communicate to the service provider server 240, via the networks230, 235.

The service provider server 240 may communicate to the revenuegenerators 110A-N via the networks 230, 235, through the webapplications, standalone applications or mobile applications 210A-N. Theservice provider server 240 may also communicate to the users 120A-N viathe networks 230, 235, through the web applications, standaloneapplications or mobile applications 220A-N.

The web applications, standalone applications and mobile applications210A-N, 220A-N may be connected to the network 230 in any configurationthat supports data transfer. This may include a data connection to thenetwork 230 that may be wired or wireless. Any of the web applications,standalone applications and mobile applications 210A-N, 220A-N mayindividually be referred to as a client application. The webapplications 210A, 220A may run on any platform that supports webcontent, such as a web browser or a computer, a mobile phone, personaldigital assistant (PDA), pager, network-enabled television, digitalvideo recorder, such as TIVO®, automobile and/or any appliance capableof data communications.

The standalone applications 210B, 220B may run on a machine that mayhave a processor, memory, a display, a user interface and acommunication interface. The processor may be operatively connected tothe memory, display and the interfaces and may perform tasks at therequest of the standalone applications 210B, 220B or the underlyingoperating system. The memory may be capable of storing data. The displaymay be operatively connected to the memory and the processor and may becapable of displaying information to the revenue generator B 110B or theuser B 120B. The user interface may be operatively connected to thememory, the processor, and the display and may be capable of interactingwith a user A 120A or a revenue generator A 110A. The communicationinterface may be operatively connected to the memory, and the processor,and may be capable of communicating through the networks 230, 235 withthe service provider server 240, third party server 250 and advertisingservices server 260. The standalone applications 210B, 220B may beprogrammed in any programming language that supports communicationprotocols. These languages may include: SUN JAVA, C++, C#, ASP, SUNJAVASCRIPT, asynchronous SUN JAVASCRIPT, or ADOBE FLASH ACTIONSCRIPT,amongst others.

The mobile applications 210N, 220N may run on any mobile device that mayhave a data connection. The data connection may be a cellularconnection, a wireless data connection, an internet connection, aninfra-red connection, a Bluetooth connection, or any other connectioncapable of transmitting data.

The service provider server 240 may include one or more of thefollowing: an application server, a data source, such as a databaseserver, a middleware server, and an advertising services server. Theservice provider server 240 may co-exist on one machine or may berunning in a distributed configuration on one or more machines. Theservice provider server 240 may collectively be referred to as theserver. The service provider server 240 may receive requests from theusers 120A-N and the revenue generators 110A-N and may serve pages tothe users 120A-N and the revenue generators 110A-N based on theirrequests.

The third party server 250 may include one or more of the following: anapplication server, a data source, such as a database server, amiddleware server, and an advertising services server. The third partyserver 250 may co-exist on one machine or may be running in adistributed configuration on one or more machines. The service providerserver 240 may receive requests from the users 120A-N and the revenuegenerators 110A-N and may serve pages to the users 120A-N and therevenue generators 110A-N based on their requests.

The advertising services server 260 may provide a platform for theinclusion of advertisements in pages, such as web pages. Theadvertisement services server 260 may be used for providingadvertisements that may be displayed to the users 120A-N.

The service provider server 240, the third party server 250 and theadvertising services server 260 may be one or more computing devices ofvarious kinds, such as the computing device in FIG. 7. Such computingdevices may generally include any device that may be configured toperform computation and that may be capable of sending and receivingdata communications by way of one or more wired and/or wirelesscommunication interfaces. Such devices may be configured to communicatein accordance with any of a variety of network protocols, including butnot limited to protocols within the Transmission ControlProtocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol suite. For example, the webapplications 210A, 210A may employ HTTP to request information, such asa web page, from a web server, which may be a process executing on theservice provider server 240 or the third-party server 250.

There may be several configurations of database servers, applicationservers, middleware servers and advertising services servers included inthe service provider server 240 or the third party server 250. Databaseservers may include MICROSOFT SQL SERVER, ORACLE, IBM DB2 or any otherdatabase software, relational or otherwise. The application server maybe APACHE TOMCAT, MICROSOFT IIS, ADOBE COLDFUSION, YAPACHE or any otherapplication server that supports communication protocols. The middlewareserver may be any middleware that connects software components orapplications. The application server on the service provider server 240or the third party server 250 may serve pages, such as web pages to theusers 120A-N and the revenue generators 110A-N. The advertising servicesserver may provide a platform for the inclusion of advertisements inpages, such as web pages. The advertising services server 260 may alsoexist independent of the service provider server 240 and the third partyserver 250. The advertisement services server 260 may be used forproviding advertisements that may be displayed to users 120A-N on pages,such as web pages.

The networks 230, 235 may be configured to couple one computing deviceto another computing device to enable communication of data between thedevices. The networks 230, 235 may generally be enabled to employ anyform of machine-readable media for communicating information from onedevice to another. Each of networks 230, 235 may include one or more ofa wireless network, a wired network, a local area network (LAN), a widearea network (WAN), a direct connection such as through a UniversalSerial Bus (USB) port, and the like, and may include the set ofinterconnected networks that make up the Internet. The networks 230, 235may include any communication method by which information may travelbetween computing devices.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart illustrating operations of the system of FIG. 1,or other systems for serving advertisements based on offline advertisingcampaigns. At block 310, the service provider server 240 may identify anoffline advertising campaign 125 available to the users 120A-N locatedwithin an advertising region and during an advertising period. Theservice provider server 240 may identify the offline advertisingcampaign 125 from data communicated from the third party server 240, orfrom one of the revenue generators 110A-N, such as the revenue generatorA 10A who may have placed the offline advertising campaign 125. Theservice provider server 240 may obtain information relating to theoffline advertising campaign 125, such as the names of the one or moreproducts being advertised. Other obtained information may include theadvertising start date/time representing the date/time when the offlineadvertising campaign 125 may have been available to the users 120A-N,the advertising region representing the geographic location of the users120A-N capable of being exposed to the offline advertising campaign 125,the type of advertisements, such as print advertisements, radioadvertisements and/or television advertisements, any online listingsthat may relate to the offline advertising campaign 125 and/or theadvertising effect period. If an advertising effect period is notdefined, the service provider server 240 may determine an appropriateadvertising effect period based on the advertising period and/or theadvertising start date/time, and the type of advertisement.

At block 320, the service provider server 240 may search historical userinteraction data to extract advertising effect data, data associatedwith the offline advertising campaign 125 generated during theadvertising effect period and within the advertising region. Theadvertising effect data may include keyword searches related to theoffline advertising campaign 125. The data may also include the numberof click throughs or impressions of online advertisements related to theoffline advertising campaign 125, web traffic of other services offeredby the service provider 130 related to the offline advertising campaign125, and any other web traffic that may relate to the offlineadvertising campaign 125.

At block 330, the service provider server 240 may identify a controlperiod when the offline advertising campaign 125 may not have beenavailable to the users 120A-N within the advertising region. The controlperiod may be identified from data retrieved from the third party server240, or from one of the revenue generators 110A-N. If the control periodcan not be identified, the service provider server 240 may determine acontrol period based on the advertising period. The control period maynot overlap with the advertising effect period. Alternatively or inaddition the service provider server 240 may identify a control regionwhere the offline advertising campaign 125 may not have been availableto the users 120A-N during the advertising period and/or the controlperiod.

At block 340, the service provider server 240 may search historical userinteraction data to extract control data, data associated with theoffline advertising campaign 125 generated during the control period andfrom within the advertising region. The control data may includekeywords searches related to the offline advertising campaign 125, thenumber of click throughs or impressions of online advertisements relatedto the offline advertising campaign 125, web traffic of other servicesoffered by the service provider 130 related to the offline advertisingcampaign 125, and any other web traffic that may relate to the offlineadvertising campaign 125.

At block 350 the service provider server 240 may generate a report, suchas a graph, showing the advertising effect data extracted at block 330and the control data extracted at block 340. The report may enable therevenue generator A 110AN to measure the effect of their offlineadvertising campaign 125 on the online behavior of the users 120A-N bycomparing the advertising effect data with the control data.

The service provider server 240 may calculate an effectiveness scoremeasuring the effect of the offline advertising campaign 125 on theonline behavior of the users 120A-N located within the advertisingregion. To calculate the effectiveness score the service provider server240 may identify an advertising effect score and a control score. Theadvertising effect score may include the total number of times users120A-N located within the advertising region searched for the keywordsduring the advertising period. The control score may include the totalnumber of times the users 120A-N located within the advertising regionsearched for the keywords during the control period. The serviceprovider server 240 may calculate the effectiveness score by subtractingthe control score from the advertising effect score. The serviceprovider 130 may generate a report comparing the effectiveness scoresacross the advertising effect period. The report may assist the revenuegenerator A 110A in determining when the offline advertising campaign125 may have increased or decreased in effectiveness.

Alternatively or in addition, the service provider server 240 maycalculate an effectiveness percent, representing the percent increase ordecrease of web traffic during the advertising effect period. Theeffectiveness percent may be calculated by dividing the advertisingeffect score by the control score and multiplying the result by 100.

At block 360, the service provider server 240 may communicate the one ormore reports and/or the effectiveness score, the effectiveness percent,the advertising effect score and the control score to the revenuegenerator A 110A via the networks 230, 235.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating steps that may be taken by one ofthe users 120A-N in the system of FIG. 1, or other systems for servingadvertisements based on offline advertising campaigns. The steps mayoccur when one of the users 120A-N, such as the user A 120A, may beexposed to the offline advertising campaign 125. At block 410 the user A120A may experience the offline advertising campaign 125. The offlineexperience may cause the user A 120A to search for online content,provided by the service provider 130, relevant to the offlineadvertising campaign 125. At block 420 the user A 120A may interact withthe service provider 130 during the advertising effect period and fromwithin the advertising region. At block 430 the user A 120A may generateweb traffic relating to the offline advertising campaign 125 bysearching for a keyword, clicking on an advertisement, or utilizing anyof the services offered by the service provider 130 relevant to theoffline advertising campaign 125. The service provider server 240 maystore data related to the interaction with the user A 120A, includingthe geographic location of the user A 120A, the date/time of theinteraction with the user A 120A and any other data associated with theuser A 120A known to the service provider server 240.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating steps that may be taken by one of therevenue generators 110A-N in the system of FIG. 1, or other systems forserving advertisements based on offline advertising campaigns. The stepsmay occur when one of the revenue generators 110A-N, such as the revenuegenerator A 110A, wishes to measure the effectiveness of an offlineadvertising campaign, such as the offline advertising campaign 125. Atblock 510 the revenue generator A 110A may interact with the serviceprovider server 240, such as by logging onto the service provider 130.At block 520 the revenue generator A 110A may communicate a request tomeasure the effectiveness of the offline advertising campaign 125.

At block 530 the revenue generator A 110A may communicate informationdescribing the offline advertising campaign 125 to the service providerserver 240. The revenue generator A 110A may communicate the advertisingperiod, the time period the offline advertising campaign 125 may havebeen available to the users 120A-N, and the advertising region, theregion where the users 120A-N may have been capable of being exposed tothe offline advertising campaign 125. The advertising region may bedescribed by a directional address and a radius extending from theaddress, or may be described by city boundaries, state boundaries,national boundaries, or any other boundary defining geographicdescriptor. The advertising period may include one date/time period, ora set of date/time periods. Furthermore, the revenue generator A 110Amay identify an advertising effect period that may represent the periodof time when the online behavior of the users 120A-N may have beenaffected by the offline advertising campaign 125. The advertising effectperiod may be longer than the advertising period, as there may be somelatency between the time period when the users 120A-N may be exposed tothe offline advertising campaign 125 and the time period when the onlinebehavior of the users 120A-N may be affected.

The revenue generator A 110A may also communicate the name of the one ormore products being advertised and any keywords related to the one ormore products being advertised. The revenue generator A 110A may specifyan online advertising listing that may refer to the one or more productsadvertised by the offline advertising campaign 125. The service providerserver 240 may retrieve the keywords bid on by the revenue generator A110A for the online advertisement and may use the keywords to measurethe online behavior of the users 120A-N.

At block 540, the revenue generator A 110A may communicate to theservice provider server 240 information describing a control period. Therevenue generator A 110A may wish to view control scores or control datain order to add context to the behavior of the users 120A-N during theadvertising period. The control period may be a second period of timewhen the offline advertising campaign 125 may not have been available tothe users 120A-N located within the advertising region. Alternatively orin addition the service provider server 240 may automatically identify acontrol period if the revenue generator A 110A does not specify one. Theservice provider server 240 may identify the control period by usingdata provided by the third party server 250 or the revenue generator A110A. If a control period is not supplied to the service provider server240, the service provider server 240 may determine a control period byidentifying a time period equal to, but distinct from the advertisingperiod when the offline advertising campaign 125 may not have beenavailable to the users 120A-N located within the advertising region.

At block 550 the service provider server 240 may search the historicaluser interaction data for advertising effect data, such as web trafficrelating to the offline advertising campaign 125 generated during theadvertising period and by users 120A-N located within the advertisingregion. The web traffic may include web traffic, keywords searched forby the users 120A-N that may relate to the offline advertising campaign125, click throughs or impressions of online advertisements related tothe offline advertising campaign 125, web traffic of other servicesoffered by the service provider 130 related to the offline advertisingcampaign 125, and/or any other web traffic that may relate to theoffline advertising campaign 125.

At block 560 the service provider server 240 searches the historicaluser interaction data for control data, such as web traffic datarelating to the offline advertising campaign 125 generated during thecontrol period and from within the advertising region. The web trafficmay include keywords searched for that may relate to the offlineadvertising campaign 125, click throughs or impressions of onlineadvertisements related to the offline advertising campaign 125, webtraffic of other services offered by the service provider 130 related tothe offline advertising campaign 125, and any other web traffic that mayrelate to the offline advertising campaign 125.

At block 570 the service provider server 240 may generate a reportshowing the advertising effect data extracted at block 550 and thecontrol data extracted at block 560. The report may enable the revenuegenerators 110A-N to measure the effect of their offline advertisingcampaign 125 on the online behavior of the users 120A-N by comparing theadvertising effect data with the control data.

The service provider server 240 may calculate an effectiveness scoremeasuring the effect of the offline advertising campaign 125 on theonline behavior of the users 120A-N located within the advertisingregion. In order to calculate the effectiveness score the serviceprovider server 240 may identify an advertising effect score,representing the total number of times users 120A-N located within theadvertising region searched for the keywords during the advertisingperiod, and a control score, representing the total number of times theusers 120A-N located within the advertising region searched for thekeywords during the control period. The service provider server 240 maythen calculate the effectiveness score by subtracting the control scorefrom the advertising effect score. The service provider 130 may generatea report comparing the effectiveness scores across the advertisingeffect period. The report may assist the revenue generator A 110A indetermining when the offline advertising campaign 125 may have increasedor decreased in effectiveness.

Alternatively or in addition, the service provider server 240 maycalculate an effectiveness percent, representing the percent increase ordecrease of web traffic during the advertising effect period. Theeffectiveness percent may be calculated by dividing the advertisingeffect score by the control score and multiplying the result by 100.

At block 570, the service provider server 240 may communicate the one ormore reports and/or the effectiveness score, the effectiveness percent,the advertising effect score and the control score to the revenuegenerator A 110A via the networks 230, 235.

FIG. 6 is screenshot of a graph 600 displaying the web traffic relatedto an offline advertising campaign generated within the advertisingregion over both the control period and the advertising effect period inthe system of FIG. 1, or other systems for serving advertisements basedon offline advertising campaigns. The x-axis of the graph may representthe time elapsed from the beginning of the respective time periods andthe y-axis of the graph may represent the web traffic related to theoffline advertising campaign 125 generated within the advertisingregion, such as the total number of searches by the users 120A-N relatedto the offline advertising campaign 125.

The graph 600 may be displayed to one of the revenue generators 110A-Nwhen the revenue generator A 110A submits information describing anoffline advertising campaign 125, including an advertising region and anadvertising effect period and information describing a control period.Alternatively or in addition the service provider server 240 mayautomatically select a control period, which may be a time period ofequal length to the advertising effect period, but distinct from theadvertising effect period, when the offline advertising campaign 125 maynot have been available to the users 120A-N within the advertisingregion. The graph 600 may include an advertising effect data line 620and a control data line 630.

The advertising effect data line 620 may represent the total number ofkeywords searched for by users 120A-N located within the advertisingregion during the advertising effect period. The control data line 630may represent the total number of keywords searched for by users 120A-Nlocated within the advertising region during the control period.

A revenue generator A 110A may compare the advertising effect data line620 and the control data line 630 to measure the effect of their offlineadvertising campaign 125 on the online behavior of the users 120A-Nlocated within the advertising region. The differences between theadvertising effect data line 620 and the control data line 630 mayrepresent the effect of the offline advertising campaign 125 on theusers 120A-N located within the advertising region.

The periods of time when the web traffic of the advertising effect dataline 620 exceeds the control data line 630 may represent period of timewhen the users 120A-N may have been positively effected by the offlineadvertising campaign 125 of the revenue generator A 110A. The greaterthe amount of web traffic of the advertising effect data line 620exceeds the amount of web traffic of the control data line 630, thegreater the positive effect the offline advertising campaign 125 had onthe online behavior of the users 120A-N.

The periods of time when the web traffic of the control data line 630exceeds the advertising effect data line 620 may represent when theusers 120A-N may not have been effected by the offline advertisingcampaign 125 of the revenue generator A 110A, or may represent when theusers 120A-N may have been adversely effected by the offline advertisingcampaign 125 of the revenue generator A 110A. The greater the amount ofweb traffic of the control data line 630 exceeds the amount of webtraffic of the advertising effect data line 620, the greater the adverseeffect the offline advertising campaign 125 may have had on the onlinebehavior of the users 120A-N.

FIG. 7 illustrates a general computer system 700, which may represent aservice provider server 240, a third party server 250, an advertisingservices server 260 or any of the other computing devices referencedherein. The computer system 700 may include a set of instructions 724that may be executed to cause the computer system 700 to perform any oneor more of the methods or computer based functions disclosed herein. Thecomputer system 700 may operate as a standalone device or may beconnected, e.g., using a network, to other computer systems orperipheral devices.

In a networked deployment, the computer system may operate in thecapacity of a server or as a client user computer in a server-clientuser network environment, or as a peer computer system in a peer-to-peer(or distributed) network environment. The computer system 700 may alsobe implemented as or incorporated into various devices, such as apersonal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a mobile device, a palmtop computer, a laptopcomputer, a desktop computer, a communications device, a wirelesstelephone, a land-line telephone, a control system, a camera, a scanner,a facsimile machine, a printer, a pager, a personal trusted device, aweb appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any other machinecapable of executing a set of instructions 724 (sequential or otherwise)that specify actions to be taken by that machine. In a particularembodiment, the computer system 700 may be implemented using electronicdevices that provide voice, video or data communication. Further, whilea single computer system 700 may be illustrated, the term “system” shallalso be taken to include any collection of systems or sub-systems thatindividually or jointly execute a set, or multiple sets, of instructionsto perform one or more computer functions.

As illustrated in FIG. 7, the computer system 700 may include aprocessor 702, such as, a central processing unit (CPU), a graphicsprocessing unit (GPU), or both. The processor 702 may be a component ina variety of systems. For example, the processor 702 may be part of astandard personal computer or a workstation. The processor 702 may beone or more general processors, digital signal processors, applicationspecific integrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays, servers,networks, digital circuits, analog circuits, combinations thereof, orother now known or later developed devices for analyzing and processingdata. The processor 702 may implement a software program, such as codegenerated manually (i.e., programmed).

The computer system 700 may include a memory 704 that can communicatevia a bus 708. The memory 704 may be a main memory, a static memory, ora dynamic memory. The memory 704 may include, but may not be limited tocomputer readable storage media such as various types of volatile andnon-volatile storage media, including but not limited to random accessmemory, read-only memory, programmable read-only memory, electricallyprogrammable read-only memory, electrically erasable read-only memory,flash memory, magnetic tape or disk, optical media and the like. In onecase, the memory 704 may include a cache or random access memory for theprocessor 702. Alternatively or in addition, the memory 704 may beseparate from the processor 702, such as a cache memory of a processor,the system memory, or other memory. The memory 704 may be an externalstorage device or database for storing data. Examples may include a harddrive, compact disc (“CD”), digital video disc (“DVD”), memory card,memory stick, floppy disc, universal serial bus (“USB”) memory device,or any other device operative to store data. The memory 704 may beoperable to store instructions 724 executable by the processor 702. Thefunctions, acts or tasks illustrated in the figures or described hereinmay be performed by the programmed processor 702 executing theinstructions 724 stored in the memory 704. The functions, acts or tasksmay be independent of the particular type of instructions set, storagemedia, processor or processing strategy and may be performed bysoftware, hardware, integrated circuits, firm-ware, micro-code and thelike, operating alone or in combination. Likewise, processing strategiesmay include multiprocessing, multitasking, parallel processing and thelike.

The computer system 700 may further include a display 714, such as aliquid crystal display (LCD), an organic light emitting diode (OLED), aflat panel display, a solid state display, a cathode ray tube (CRT), aprojector, a printer or other now known or later developed displaydevice for outputting determined information. The display 714 may act asan interface for the user to see the functioning of the processor 702,or specifically as an interface with the software stored in the memory704 or in the drive unit 706.

Additionally, the computer system 700 may include an input device 712configured to allow a user to interact with any of the components ofsystem 700. The input device 712 may be a number pad, a keyboard, or acursor control device, such as a mouse, or a joystick, touch screendisplay, remote control or any other device operative to interact withthe system 700.

The computer system 700 may also include a disk or optical drive unit706. The disk drive unit 706 may include a computer-readable medium 722in which one or more sets of instructions 724, e.g. software, can beembedded. Further, the instructions 724 may perform one or more of themethods or logic as described herein. The instructions 724 may residecompletely, or at least partially, within the memory 704 and/or withinthe processor 702 during execution by the computer system 700. Thememory 704 and the processor 702 also may include computer-readablemedia as discussed above.

The present disclosure contemplates a computer-readable medium 722 thatincludes instructions 724 or receives and executes instructions 724responsive to a propagated signal; so that a device connected to anetwork 235 may communicate voice, video, audio, images or any otherdata over the network 235. Further, the instructions 724 may betransmitted or received over the network 235 via a communicationinterface 718. The communication interface 718 may be a part of theprocessor 702 or may be a separate component. The communicationinterface 718 may be created in software or may be a physical connectionin hardware. The communication interface 718 may be configured toconnect with a network 235, external media, the display 714, or anyother components in system 700, or combinations thereof. The connectionwith the network 235 may be a physical connection, such as a wiredEthernet connection or may be established wirelessly as discussed below.Likewise, the additional connections with other components of the system700 may be physical connections or may be established wirelessly. In thecase of a service provider server 240, a third party server 250, anadvertising services server 260, the servers may communicate with users120A-N and the revenue generators 110A-N through the communicationinterface 718.

The network 235 may include wired networks, wireless networks, orcombinations thereof. The wireless network may be a cellular telephonenetwork, an 802.11, 802.16, 802.20, or WiMax network. Further, thenetwork 235 may be a public network, such as the Internet, a privatenetwork, such as an intranet, or combinations thereof, and may utilize avariety of networking protocols now available or later developedincluding, but not limited to TCP/IP based networking protocols.

The computer-readable medium 722 may be a single medium, or thecomputer-readable medium 722 may be a single medium or multiple media,such as a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated cachesand servers that store one or more sets of instructions. The term“computer-readable medium” may also include any medium that may becapable of storing, encoding or carrying a set of instructions forexecution by a processor or that may cause a computer system to performany one or more of the methods or operations disclosed herein.

The computer-readable medium 722 may include a solid-state memory suchas a memory card or other package that houses one or more non-volatileread-only memories. The computer-readable medium 722 also may be arandom access memory or other volatile re-writable memory. Additionally,the computer-readable medium 722 may include a magneto-optical oroptical medium, such as a disk or tapes or other storage device tocapture carrier wave signals such as a signal communicated over atransmission medium. A digital file attachment to an e-mail or otherself-contained information archive or set of archives may be considereda distribution medium that may be a tangible storage medium.Accordingly, the disclosure may be considered to include any one or moreof a computer-readable medium or a distribution medium and otherequivalents and successor media, in which data or instructions may bestored.

Alternatively or in addition, dedicated hardware implementations, suchas application specific integrated circuits, programmable logic arraysand other hardware devices, may be constructed to implement one or moreof the methods described herein. Applications that may include theapparatus and systems of various embodiments may broadly include avariety of electronic and computer systems. One or more embodimentsdescribed herein may implement functions using two or more specificinterconnected hardware modules or devices with related control and datasignals that may be communicated between and through the modules, or asportions of an application-specific integrated circuit. Accordingly, thepresent system may encompass software, firmware, and hardwareimplementations.

The methods described herein may be implemented by software programsexecutable by a computer system. Further, implementations may includedistributed processing, component/object distributed processing, andparallel processing. Alternatively or in addition, virtual computersystem processing maybe constructed to implement one or more of themethods or functionality as described herein.

Although components and functions are described that may be implementedin particular embodiments with reference to particular standards andprotocols, the components and functions are not limited to suchstandards and protocols. For example, standards for Internet and otherpacket switched network transmission (e.g., TCP/IP, UDP/IP, HTML, HTTP)represent examples of the state of the art. Such standards areperiodically superseded by faster or more efficient equivalents havingessentially the same functions. Accordingly, replacement standards andprotocols having the same or similar functions as those disclosed hereinare considered equivalents thereof.

The illustrations described herein are intended to provide a generalunderstanding of the structure of various embodiments. The illustrationsare not intended to serve as a complete description of all of theelements and features of apparatus, processors, and systems that utilizethe structures or methods described herein. Many other embodiments maybe apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the disclosure.Other embodiments may be utilized and derived from the disclosure, suchthat structural and logical substitutions and changes may be madewithout departing from the scope of the disclosure. Additionally, theillustrations are merely representational and may not be drawn to scale.Certain proportions within the illustrations may be exaggerated, whileother proportions may be minimized. Accordingly, the disclosure and thefigures are to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive.

Although specific embodiments have been illustrated and describedherein, it should be appreciated that any subsequent arrangementdesigned to achieve the same or similar purpose may be substituted forthe specific embodiments shown. This disclosure is intended to cover anyand all subsequent adaptations or variations of various embodiments.Combinations of the above embodiments, and other embodiments notspecifically described herein, may be apparent to those of skill in theart upon reviewing the description.

The Abstract is provided with the understanding that it will not be usedto interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition,in the foregoing Detailed Description, various features may be groupedtogether or described in a single embodiment for the purpose ofstreamlining the disclosure. This disclosure is not to be interpreted asreflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require morefeatures than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as thefollowing claims reflect, inventive subject matter may be directed toless than all of the features of any of the disclosed embodiments. Thus,the following claims are incorporated into the Detailed Description,with each claim standing on its own as defining separately claimedsubject matter.

The above disclosed subject matter is to be considered illustrative, andnot restrictive, and the appended claims are intended to cover all suchmodifications, enhancements, and other embodiments, which fall withinthe true spirit and scope of the description. Thus, to the maximumextent allowed by law, the scope is to be determined by the broadestpermissible interpretation of the following claims and theirequivalents, and shall not be restricted or limited by the foregoingdetailed description.

1. A method for serving an online advertisement based on an offlineadvertising campaign, comprising: identifying an offline advertisingcampaign available to a set of users; identifying an advertising effectperiod when the offline advertising campaign is capable of affecting anonline behavior of the set of users; identifying an online advertisementrelating to the offline advertising campaign; and serving the onlineadvertisement to the set of users during the advertising effect period.2. The method of claim 1 wherein the offline advertising campaigncomprises an advertisement displayed on a television.
 3. The method ofclaim 1 wherein the users in the set of users are located within ageographic region.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein the offlineadvertising campaign is available to the set of users for an advertisingperiod.
 5. The method of claim 4 wherein the advertising effect periodis based on the advertising period.
 6. The method of claim 5 wherein theadvertising effect period is based on a type of advertisement of theoffline advertising campaign.
 7. A method for utilizing an offlineadvertising campaign in a relevancy assessment of an onlineadvertisement, comprising: determining a relevancy of an onlineadvertisement to a search request of a user; identifying an offlineadvertising campaign relating to the online advertisement; determiningan advertising effect period when the offline advertising campaign iscapable of affecting an online behavior of the user; increasing therelevancy of the online advertisement if the search request wasperformed by the user during the advertising effect period.
 8. Themethod of claim 7 wherein the offline advertising campaign comprises anadvertisement displayed on a television.
 9. The method of claim 8wherein the offline advertising campaign was available to a set of usersin a geographic region.
 10. The method of claim 9 wherein the user islocated in the geographic region.
 11. The method of claim 7 wherein theoffline advertising campaign is available to the set of users for anadvertising period.
 12. The method of claim 11 wherein the advertisingeffect period is based on the advertising period.
 13. The method ofclaim 11 wherein the relevancy is determined by a search enginemarketing system.
 14. The method of claim 13 wherein advertisements withthe highest relevancy are displayed to the user.
 15. A system forserving an online advertisement based on an offline advertisingcampaign, comprising: a memory to store an offline advertising campaignof an advertiser, an advertising effect period, a set of users, and anonline advertisement; an interface operatively connected to the memoryto serve an online advertisement to the users in the set of users; and aprocessor operatively connected to the memory and the interface, theprocessor for running instructions, wherein the processor identifies theoffline advertising campaign available to the set of users, identifiesthe advertising effect period when the offline advertising campaign iscapable of effecting an online behavior of the set of users, identifiesan online advertisement relating to the offline advertising campaign andserving the online advertisement to the users in the set of users, viathe interface, during the advertising effect period.
 16. The system ofclaim 15 wherein the offline advertising campaign comprises anadvertisement displayed on a television.
 17. The system of claim 15wherein the users in the set of users are located within a geographicregion.
 18. The system of claim 15 wherein the offline advertisingcampaign is available to the set of users for an advertising period. 19.The system of claim 18 wherein the advertising effect period is based onthe advertising period.
 20. The system of claim 15 wherein theadvertising effect period is based on a type of advertisement of theoffline advertising campaign.
 21. The system of claim 15 wherein theonline advertisement is served to the user in response to a searchperformed by the user.